Universities: Upping the Ante

As science has become ever more complex, teaching it has become ever
more costly. Just how expensive was indicated this week by Harvard, which
announced a new $48.7 million fund-raising drive to improve its
undergraduate science programs. A major objective is to meet the
accelerating demand for knowledge and research facilities from increasingly
sophisticated science majors, who represent about one quarter of Harvard's
undergraduates. "We're teaching freshmen things I didn't learn until I was a
graduate student," says Nobel Physics Professor Edward Purcell.
The University also wants to beef up its general-education...